Renewing Superintendent Carrie Ballinger’s contract was on the agenda at Tuesday night’s Board of Education meeting. It was a highly-attended and -viewed meeting, as many people showed up to support her or watched via live stream. Though her contract wasn’t renewed until a special meeting on Friday, June 11th, she detailed her experiences at the Tuesday, June 8th, regular meeting.
Ballinger became superintendent of Rockcastle County schools in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, and her peers nominated her for Kentucky Superintendent of the Year for her efforts.
On Tuesday night, Ballinger gave a presentation on her first year as superintendent, detailing a year which had “5 first days of school”. When friends and colleagues told her she picked the worst time to take on the job, Ballinger said she replied “I saw it as an opportunity.”
The superintendent began her presentation by thanking her team for their role in what she characterized as shared accomplishments.
“There is nothing that gets accomplished in Rockcastle County Schools without an entire team. […] We are a team. […] It’s all about our kids”, Ballinger said.
She described some of the school system’s recent accomplishments, such as creating 45 community feeding sites, implementing the Trauma plan, summer meals, feeding plans, wifi hotspots, and a warming center, all of which were focused on seeing the community through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Our schools are so much more than the places our kids go to learn-they are safe havens at the heart of our communities. Thank you Rockcastle county school system and all the schools around our state keeping families dry and warm this winter”, Lieutenant Governor Jaqueline Coleman wrote in a tweet that Ballinger shared on Tuesday night.
Ballinger also discussed leadership, which she defined as service. She also posed the question to numerous students, and shared their responses in a video at the board meeting.
A student also praised the warming center, which was set up at Rockcastle County Middle School when many in the county were without power during the month of February. The school system was “making sure people were fed and clothed… I think the warming center was a great thing for the community. Education goes far beyond the classroom,” the student said.
Another student defined leadership as being “a servant to your peers”, another said, “leadership is helping others”, another stated “leaders are encouragers.”
“[Ballinger] stood by what she thought was right [during the pandemic] because she cares about the students,” said another student.
Other students noted the dedication and hard work of everyone in the school system, which supported their learning.“ I learned a whole lot more than I expected,” a student said. “They genuinely care about us,” said another.
One student spoke about online learning and how their teachers and staff were “keeping us motivated online and considering us socially. This is where we spend most of our time, this is our life. They understood that.”
“[Those are] our kids, that’s what it’s about. It was a global pandemic, look what we accomplished,” Ballinger said after the video.
The school board’s efforts, and Ballinger’s in particular, haven’t gone unnoticed.
“Wow,” said Dr. Fred Carter, Director of the KY Association of School Administrators “It comes through loud and clear your focus is on kids and that’s where it definitely should be.”
Dr. Carter also characterized Ballinger as a workhorse and a team player. “She really doesn’t care who takes the credit as long as the community, county, and district is better for it. To me that’s the bottom line.”
Taylora Schlosser, who is Ballinger’s mentor and the Superintendent of Marion County Schools, described Ballinger as a “visionary leader” and said “she’s made a lot of things happen”. Schlosser is next year’s Kentucky Association of School Administrators (KASA) president.
Ballinger shared her scores in her presentation, and are reported in the image below.
In the middle of the meeting on Tuesday, the board went into closed session for Ballinger’s evaluation. The closed session lasted for approximately 2 hours, with around 20 community members in attendance anxiously awaiting the results.
After returning from closed session, the board approved Ballinger’s evaluation unanimously. The board voted 4-1 in favor of the extension of Ballinger’s contract as superintendent pending legal advise with Hammond voting No.
The sole votes in opposition were from board member Larry Hammond, who is currently under investigation with the attorney general’s office for a conflict of interest concerning his elected position on the Rockcastle board of education while currently serving as superintendent of Gallatin County Schools.Hammond approved Ballinger’s evaluation and voted no to the extension of her contact pending legal advice. He also voted no to Ballinger’s pay raise also pending legal advise.
Ballinger’s contract was still pending at the conclusion of Tuesday’s meeting. The board called for a special meeting to be held and live streamed on June 11, at which it addressed concerns about a state statute pertaining to extending first-year superintendents’ contracts. The board confirmed Ballinger’s contract and pay raise on Friday night, affirming its 4-1 vote, with Hammond as the sole vote in opposition and requesting to submit a statement to be included in the board minutes in support of his decision to vote no.
Ballinger responded to Hammond’s statement in Friday’s meeting, along with other board members questioning the accuracy of portions of his statement.
You can contact the attorney general’s office through their website or by calling 502-696-5300 if you would like to share your opinion about their investigation of Hammond.
